DIY panel saw

This is a DIY panel saw that I made, I saw a similar design in shop notes magazine, and various places online and decided to build one myself. It is a sliding panel saw, in that the saw sliding along two aluminum rails when cutting vertically, and the saw is stationary, and it is the board that moves when cutting, with the saw held fixed when cutting horizontally. A couple plastic featherboards hold the flush with the saw.

My goals here were twofold. First was to have a way that I could accurately and easily cut down large sheets of plywood, this is quite difficult to do on the table saw without help, especially with something like 3/4″ inch MDF. I can barely lift it much less control it accurately on a table saw. It also allows you to make cross cuts on a full piece of plywood. The only other way I could do this before having a panel saw was with a straight edge and a circular saw. This works ok, but it’s very slow.

The second goal was to have a place to store full sheets of plywood. I do all my work in a two-car garage and space is a premium, there just isn’t a great place to store plywood. I figured I could have the plywood on the back of the panel saw to provide some weight to help keep the panel saw still when I was using it and would double as good storage too.

I designed most of the panel saw in Google Sketchup. The only part I didn’t design with Sketchup was the saw carriage. The shape of the DEWALT Circular saw and how to position the hold-downs is not a simple thing to model in software, so I just came up with some basic measurements of the size of the saw to determine how to place the 8020 aluminum rails, then figured how to mount the saw as I went. Here are some screen shots from Sketchup to show the basic dimensions.

diy panel saw:

I didn’t follow these drawings exactly, but the overall dimensions are still correct.

One large compartment is for full sheets of plywood, the smaller one for whatever I can fit.

To start with I spent some time digging through all of the 2×4’s at my local Home Depot, and chose the straightest ones I could find, then I jointed one face, and one edge, then used the planer and table saw to true them up. These would be used to build the frame for the plywood storage area, and for the frame for the cutting surface.

It was key to get the front panel cutting surface to be flat. This is not an easy thing do because it is so large, over 8 feet long and 5 feet high. To get the front supports for the main piece of plywood straight I used the Aluminum extrusions that are used to support the saw carriage as a straight edge, and clamping surface. I started with the center pieces and a board or two on each side. Once those were in place I moved extrusions down and attached the remaining supports in a similar manner. I used pocket screws to fasten the 2×4’s to the base, and small brackets made of plywood to attach them at the top.

Once I had the front frame assembled and checked that it was perfectly straight, I added some scraps of 2×4’s as reinforcing.

The top piece was cut with a bevel on the table saw. You can see I’m already storing plywood in the back. That plywood is going to be used to finish building the panel saw.

I added a counterweight system to help move the saw. Its not as smooth as a Holzher panel saw I once used, but it works perfectly well, and diy panel saws don’t cost 10 grand to build. The weights are just some iron dumbell weights. I ended using 15 lbs total, just by experimenting a bit. Even with teflon bearings, there is still some friction that helps with keeping the saw from dropping to fast.

I didn’t use conduit like was done on the example I saw in shop notes, instead I ended up using two 72″ pieces of 8020 extruded aluminum, these pieces are fairly lightweight, smaller than a 2 x 4, and perfectly straight, all while not being terribly expensive ( about $130 for the extrusions, Teflon bearings, joining strips, and bolts). You can buy all sorts of bearings and what not to slide along the aluminum rails, but they are really quite expensive. I ended up using simple Teflon slide bearing pads and building a plywood carriage for my circular saw. It was a little tricky to get everything straight, but once done, it works well.

Here you can see the Teflon bearings. The entire saw carriage runs on 16 of these little slide bearings, 4 each on top/bottom, left/right. A small piece of plywood is attached to the larger piece that holds the saw using four bolts. This works really well as it gives a way to adjust the amount of resistance when moving the carriage. Simply loosen or tighten the bolts to adjust the resistance.

As you can see, the carriage is made from 3/4″ birch plywood, with a hole cut to accommodate vertical and horizontal cutting. I made this by removing the saw blade and setting the saw down on the plywood, keeping it roughly close to parallel with one edge of the plywood, then I cut the hole in the wood so the saw would sit flat and I could align the base of the circular saw to the edge of the plywood carriage. Once it was aligned perfectly to one edge I took some small pieces of 1/4″ MDF, and glued them in place to hole the saw perfectly parallel to one edge. I added some nails once the glue had time to dry. I completely surrounded the saw base with these little strips. Next I added the hold downs, just by experimenting with where they would work best. If you look just below the bolt that holds the cable for the counterweight, you’ll see a small scrap of plywood. This little scrap was put there because when raising the saw after making a vertical cut the blade guard on the circular saw would jam the carriage from moving. This little scrap holds the blade guard up off the cutting surface.

Here you can see the saw mounted in the horizontal cutting position.

the DW364 does not come with a way to lock the trigger, but for safety you need an easy way to stop the saw immediately. My solution to this was to use a small velcro strap to hold the trigger down, and large emergency stop button to cut power to the saw. This is a must have.

The cord that goes to the receptacle in my garage is held out of the way by a eye bolt like hanging hook I found at Home Depot.

To lock the saw down tight when making horizontal cuts, I added a star knob. I bought the star knob from Rockler, but found out the bolt that came with it did not quite fit in the size of t-track in the 8020 extrusion. I fixed that issue in about 10 seconds with a bench grinder.

I also added a measuring guide to make measurements easy. The metal is just a cheap aluminum square tube I bought at Home Depot, and added a self-adhesive measuring tape. You just need to get it approximately aligned, fine adjustments are made with the small piece of acrylic plastic. I used a drill and old chisel ( i.e. one I don’t mind damaging) to make the groove for the screws. To make a precise line, I scratched a line using an X-Acto knife and straightedge, colored it with a black sharpie, and then wiped it off with some rubbing alcohol and a rag. This removes all the marker except whats in groove, leaving a very precise, highly visible line.

The 8020 aluminum rails are attached to the base using joining strip that is designed to be used with these extrusions. Once the carriage was assembled and final alignments made I used the saw to cut directly into the board that supports the plywood you are cutting. Then I applied adhesive measuring tape to both sides.

I attached the aluminum extrusions to the bottom using some joining strips from 80/20.

This saw has turned out to work great for storage, I ended up adding a few little compartments on the back for scraps and miscellaneous pieces.

In the end I am happy with the results of the panel saw though I don’t use it quite as often as I thought would, I’ve learned that a lot of times if I want to rip a piece of plywood say, 20 inches wide I can use a circular saw to first make one cut through the plywood as straight as I can by hand (which is to say not very straight), then I have two factory edges to work with. This means I’m ripping half a piece of plywood on the table saw half a piece of plywood instead of a whole piece.

If I were to build the project over again, I would only do a couple things differently. When doing a horizontal cut the plywood is too difficult to push. This is because I there is so much surface area with the plywood back and also the edge of the plywood sits on a piece of Masonite, in retrospect I should have used melamine covered particleboard for both. This is readily available at my local home cheapo, and is actually a little cheaper than birch plywood. As for wood storage it works great, I can get a lot of plywood behind the saw, almost to the point that the saw is too heavy to move.

Yes I just manually slide the ply past the fixed saw. I put a strip of masonite where the ply I’m cutting touches the base, hoping that would reduce the friction and make it easy to slide. I wouldn’t recommend doing it this way though, it works, but with a full sheet of plywood its pretty hard to slide. I have to lock the wheels or I will end up pushing the entire thing when cutting a piece horizontally. If I were to build it again, I think I would use melamine covered particle board, or even a strip of metal, maybe gutter flashing or something like that.

I also really like your saw and I can appreciate your struggles with full sheets of plywood. I do my woodworking from a wheelchair and currently have to rely on the guy at Home Crappo to rough cut my sheets for me. Then it’s often a crapshoot on how well they can read a tape, but I have certainly created a go-to list of people to run the saw for me.
I was wondering if you would be willing to share your sketchup file for this project?

I’d also add that the bearings are available through 80/20 themselves.

The plywood saw base has little teflon strips where it contacts the rails. So do the plywood strips on top of the rail. Then there are just 4 bolts that work to “squeeze” the rail between the plywood strips and plywood saw base. By adjusting the bolts, I can vary the amount of “squeeze” force on the rail. This helps to set the right amount of resistance when sliding the carriage.

hi can you tell me where you buy all the hardware from and the rails called from home depo? and did you improve upon your design

id like to build this and if you have a video… since trying to cut on a Canadian tire mobile table saw.. cutting 5/8″ plywood length or wide cutting 4×8 sheets practly impossible by myself so I wanna make this..

any extra info and a break down of all the hardware be good or where you buy everything like those saw clamps… as id like to get the hardware before I start thigs project

I have not changed the design, I still use it as you see here. It works well enough that I don’t feel the need to change it. The improvements that I mention are just what I learned after finishing it, mainly the plywood being too hard to push through the saw.

The rails are 80/20 series 10 aluminum extrusions. You can buy them many places online, Aamazon, Mcmaster-Carr etc. Same for the little Teflon sliders that ride along the rail. The hold-downs, star knob, and measuring tapes came from Rockler. Pretty much everything else that I can think of was bought at Home Depot.

also more measuresments be good.. and the using straight edge and clamping at he beginning is that to get all the 2x4s lined up straight and then you screw it to the wood on the bottom ledge.. I don’t have a planer either just table saw and a hand hand held planer I do have

Yes the clamping at the beginning was to get all the 2×4’s lined up so that the plywood didn’t twist or warp when I screwed it down. The 2×4’s are attached with pocket screws at the bottom and near the top with some brackets I made from plywood scraps. You cane see the brackets if you look closely in the picture. Sorry I don’t have any more pictures or plans, I already posted everything I have. If you have a specific question I’ll try to help.

ah ok and how well can it cut ply wood as that’s what I wanna use it for not so much paneling but actually plywood.. is there a space as I was looking at buying the Shope notes issue 88 plans and modify ot to have a backing maybe..

so what improvement would you do you said pushing the plywood through it is too hard? how thick of plywood your cutting etc

One way you push the saw, the other way you push the wood while the saw is locked in place. You cut vertically by moving the carriage along the rails. You cut horizontally by rotating the saw, locking the carriage with the starknob, then you push the wood through.

Wow. I`ve been doing research on a panel router with plywood storage incorporated into the back of the machine. I think your design is great.
Maybe you could provide some recommendations on my diy attempt.

I really appreciate this design especially your foresight in incorporating a wood rack/cart into the design. Believe it or not, this is the first design I’ve seen do so & I’ve been looking at several designs over several months / years!. I too work out of a 2-car garage and severely need a place to store 4×8 sheets & cut-offs. As you know, a wood rack for storage is naturally big, bulky & takes up a lot of precious space. I have to tell you, incorporating the two is pure genius! It was so obvious when I read your article I was flabbergasted that no-one, including myself, has thought of it before. The basic 80/20 aluminum rail concept is solid & I’ve seen it before. I will take advantage of your experience & comments to make a few improvements based upon your comments. Thank you for sharing; Kudos my friend, Kudos! Be safe & God Bless.